Genetic variability and genetic diversity of 13 upland rice genotypes for agronomic traits and nutritional qualities.

Abstract

Upland rice is important for sustainable crop production to meet future food demands. Increase in area planted with low land rice genotypes is constraints because of water shortage due to climate change. Thirteen upland rice genotypes were evaluated in a randomized complete block design with three replications in two years to study the genetic variation and diversity of some agronomic traits and nutritional qualities of the selected upland rice genotypes. Data were subjected to analysis of variance, principal component analysis and cluster analysis. Significant variations were expressed by genotypes for all traits studied. Interaction between genotypes and year exhibited significant differences for all the traits with exception of Panicle Weight (PW) and Tiller Number (TN) where no significant difference was expressed. The highest phenotypic and genotypic coefficient of variation was recorded for grain yield across years. All traits under study exhibited high heritability with exception of Tiller Number (TN) in both years and in year 2 of number days to 50% flowering number of leaves at 2 weeks after planting and 8 weeks after planting respectively. Cluster analysis based on 15 traits grouped the 13 rice genotypes into five clusters. Cluster III was the largest and consisted of 4 genotypes mostly belonging to NERICA family. The first four principal components of the 15 principal components accounted for about 96.67% of the total variation and revealed a wide variation among the genotypes. The best traits, which showed high heritability and high genetic advance, could be used as a selection criterion for hybridization programmers in future breeding.